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Cities of opportunity - what makes a city 'great'?

What makes a city great? How can cities thrive economically and yet remain liveable?PwC and the Partnership for New York City have published the latest edition of Cities of Opportunity, a report which analyses the performance of 27 of the world's cities against ten broad social, economic and technological indicators. As well as analysing the current situation, the report also looks forward to 2025 to consider future scenarios and key success factors.The cities analysed in the report currently account for 8% of world GDP but are home to only 2.5% of the world population.Healthy growth in a city relies on a combination of 'quality of life' factors (good education opportunities; healthcare; safety and housing) combined with strong business and solid infrastructure.The ten indicators used by PwC:

City gateway

Cost

Demographics and liveability

Economic clout

Ease of doing business

Health, safety and security

Intellectual capital and innovation

Sustainability and the natural environment

Technology readiness

Transportation and infrastructure

Intellectual capital and innovationInnovation generates both social and economic growth. In order to measure each city's performance a number of factors are considered and scored to create a league table. These factors include average class size, maths, science skills attainment, literacy rates and percentage of population who receive a higher education.Also included are:

Intellectual property protection (Singapore scores top points)

Research performance at top universities (London rates highest - and three Asian cities appear in the top ten)

Libraries with public access (Stockholm scores highest)

The key measures of 'Technology readiness' include:

Internet access in schools and Digital economy score (Stockholm is top in both of these)